Final Site Seeing Day and Farewell

In route to Albany, NY, we stopped in Bennington, VT to take in four beautiful covered bridges, all within a mile or two of each other.  This covered bridge appeared in more brochures, catalogs, and paintings than any of the others in the entire state. 

As we drove into the city, the first thing we spotted was the Bennington War Monument that commemorates a famous battle that took place during the Revolutionary War.

We also stopped by Hemmings Motor News Vintage Vehicle Display.  For the car buff, Hemmings is the bible that is used when buying a vintage vehicle.  

Pictured here is a 1940 Buick Century 4-door convertible sedan.  The Century designation meant it was capable of going over 100 MPH.

I wish I could show all of the 20 vehicles we saw but my blog will not accept them.  If you are ever in Bennington, this place is a must see.

The girls stopped by the 100+ year old Bennington Pottery Plant.  The store was in one of the buildings of this old grain mill.   The self guided tour in the plant was very informative.  The workers took the time to explain to us the entire process from forming the pottery to firing in the kiln. 

We stayed in a lovely Walmart on the north side of Albany this evening.  Our good friends Al and Nancy joined us for dinner this evening to celebrate the conclusion of our trip to the beautiful Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and the wonderful fall colors of New England.  They are headed back home to Cincinnati while we are headed south to Florida.

Traveling to the Vermont Store

Well, it’s time to start heading south.  We picked Vermont Route 7A since it was listed in many of the brochures as one of the best scenic byways in Vermont.  We weren’t disappointed.  Every turn brought another picture but we can’t show them all.  This photo of us driving down the road was taken by our friends Nancy and Al.

We decided to stop in Arlington, Vt. and found a great little campground with large wooded lots.  After setup, we headed to Weston, VT, the home of the Vermont Store.  It’s a nationally known catalog store that sells a wide variety of goods, from fashion country clothing to select cheeses, wines and unique kitchen accessories.

Downtown Burlington

With a temperature predicted to be in the 70's today, we needed to spend the day outside touring downtown Burlington.  Burlington is located in northwestern Vermont, along Lake Champlain.  It is the largest city in the State of Vermont with a city population of 42,417 and the total metro area population of 213,701.  

The beautiful waterfront boardwalk featured a bike path, waterfront restaurants and pubs, trolley tours and boat cruises on Lake Champlain.  The area is also known for its craft beer pubs.  Of course, we checked one out.

One of the busiest areas of downtown is the Church Street Pedestrian Mall.  It runs for 5 blocks of continuous shopping and restaurants. Of course, the girls had to check it out for a few hours.

Teddy Bears and Shelburne Farm

After a couple of days in the Stowe/Montpelier, Vermont area we decided it was time to move on.  Our friends, Al and Nancy took this picture of us traveling north on Interstate 89 towards the Lake Champlain/Burlington area.   We ended up in a great campground right on Malletts Bay in the town of Colchester, just north of Burlington.

After a quick lunch we drove the car down to the home of Vermont Teddy Bears.  Kathy wanted to visit here to see the birth place of the Teddy Bear she received from her sister Maureen for her 50^th birthday.  We joined a group of others for a tour of the factory that demonstrated how the bears are created from cutting and stitching to stuffing, sewing and packaging. 

Now we headed on to a tour of the fabulous Shelburne Farm.  It was established in 1886 as the model agriculture estate of Lila Vanderbilt and her husband.    Yes, she was an heir of the famous railroad tycoon William Henry Vanderbilt and spent millions of dollars buying up 34 small farms to develop a State of the Art Farm. 

The first home she built was a mire 10,000 sq feet.  During the first visit from her relatives, they chastised her for building such a small home.  The following year it was rebuilt into the 44,000 sq. ft. mansion seen here.

Here is a picture of a small portion of the gigantic 3 sided barn, larger than any I have ever seen.  The center court area was over 2 acres.

The farm was primarily a dairy farm, but at times raised sheep as well.  We just missed a demonstration of how they make a variety of cheddar cheese from the milk.

The tour closed with a tour of one of many beautiful gardens around the house.

Rock of Ages / Rainy Day

The rain started falling around 5am at a steady rate.  By noon when it started to clear we had accumulated over one inch according to the weather service.  

After lunch we headed out to the Rock of Ages stone quarry where tours were available.  I know it sounds morbid, a grave stone manufacturing tour, but it was quite interesting.

They are considered to be the premier manufacturer of stone used not only for head stones but monuments as well.  For example the World War II memorial in D.C. was mined and manufactured here.  This particular quarry has some of the most perfect gray stone available in the world.  It is over 600 feet deep and has enough stone to last them for over 1000 years.

Each stone is cut to order, polished and prepared for engraving.

As you can see the plant is extremely large.

Finally Full Autumn Color

We finally began seeing some full autumn color this morning.  It’s interesting to notice how the colors can change as you drive down the road.  Within a mile, the same type of trees can change from green to their full autumn color.

A visit to this part of New England wouldn’t be complete without stopping by the home of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.  We heard how Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield turned a $5 correspondence course into a global ice cream business.

On display here are their 44 current flavors, but they have manufactured well over 100 specialized flavors over the years.  They rotate out their less popular flavors on a continuing basis to bring new ones to the market.

The Cold Hollow Cider Mill was our next stop on our way to Stowe, Vermont.  The photo you see here is the mashed up apples that are being fed onto trays with openings in it for the juice to run out.  After filling the tray with a cheese cloth on the bottom the remaining cheese cloth is folded over the sides and top and another tray is placed on top.  There are about twelve trays stacked on top of each other and then a 12 ton press is utilized to press the juice out of the cheese cloth in to a trough and into packaging.   Endless samples were provided to us all.

Following lunch and a malt at the local ice cream parlor we sat outside the Stowe, Vermont Visitors Center to take in the sun and watch the swarm of tourist pass by.

Later in the afternoon we drove a couple of suggested scenic drives.  It’s a good thing we used a GPS or we would still be in the country trying to find our way out.  The area is a mixture of summer homes, some with neat carvings, and dairy farms.

Vermont Bound

We noticed the leaves continuing to change into their full color as we drove into Vermont this afternoon.  

After setting up camp in Barre, near Montpelier (the capitol of Vermont), we visited the Bragg Sugarhouse Farm.  They have been in operation for over 100 years and annually tap the 800 Sugar Maple trees on their farm.  The sap is only collected for a couple of weeks at the end of each winter.  

We got to visit the processing room where the sap is boiled down maple syrup. 

Next on our list for the day was Fresh Tracks Farm Vineyard and Winery.  Samples of 6 different wines were provided.  The general consensus was that the wine tends to be a little too sweet for our taste. However, each couple did find one that they purchased for later consumption.  

Train Day

While the girls were shopping we noticed a beautiful train station in the middle of North Conway.  The Conway Scenic Railroad runs a number of excursions to the various towns that populate the valley in the White Mountains.  The station you see here was originally built in 1874 and remodeled several times over the years.  We picked up some tickets for the short luncheon train ride.

While they run a number of trains, ours for the luncheon was a standard diesel electric locomotive.  There is, however, a 1921 steam engine that is being renovated for the future season.  It, as well as other old vintage cars, was available for viewing.

The car in which we are dining is a vintage dining car from the 1929.  We were given our choice of 4 different meals as well as a variety of wines, beer and liquor.  

Later in the day, we ventured toward Mt. Washington, the highest summit (at 6,288’) in northeastern USA.   The Cog train, which we road to the top,  is a lot different than other locomotives in that the engine drives two cogs that connect with a flat continuous chain mounted to the center of the track.

The train pictured is a replica of the original steam driven locomotive that burned 2,000 pounds of coal plus 1,000 gallons of water on its ascent.    In more recent years, they utilized a biodiesel train that burns on 16 – 18 gallons of fuel per round trip and climbs the hill at 5 mph, which is almost twice as fast as the steam driven locomotive. 

The single track that lead up the mountain breaks into two tracks for 100 yards before coming back together, to enable a train coming down to pass the one going up.   The angle of ascent averages about 25% but there is one long stretch near the top of the mountain where it increases to 37% which is close to a 45 degree angle. 

The view from the top of Mount Washington is absolutely spectacular.  We were very fortunate to have one of the only 60 clear days that occurs in a year.  

The top of the mountain contains a weather observatory.  The lowest recorded temperature at the summit was 49 degrees below zero and the highest was only 74 degrees.  The average annual snow fall is 177 inches and the average wind velocity is 37 mph.  The highest wind velocity ever recorded in the US was on Mount Washington – 231 mph in April, 1934. 

Pictured here is the oldest building on the summit called the Tip Top house built in 1853. 

The train operates with only two employees - the locomotive engineer and the passenger car brakeman. The cars are not attached to each other and the brakeman is charged with using the wheels seen in this picture to apply brakes to the passenger car to help diminish the load on the engineer as it ascends on the mountain.